The future of birth control and drug delivery: Remote controlled implants that last for 16 years

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An MIT spin-off in Massachusetts, backed by the Gates Foundation, has developed a small, remote-controlled drug-dispensing implant that sits just under your skin. To activate the drug dispenser you simply press a button on a wireless remote control — and press it again to turn it off. Such an implant could be used to dispense a whole range of useful drugs — but in this case, one of the first commercial applications will be the contraceptive hormone levonorgestrel, which is already used by a number of female birth control methods. A single implant can apparently provide enough levonorgestrel to be effective for 16 years; currently, no implanted contraceptive works for more than five years.

The implanted device, developed by the rather unimaginatively named Microchips in Lexington, is 20mm (0.8in) square and 7mm thick. Contained within the device is a microchip (thus the company’s amazing name) that contains a series of drug reservoirs. This is where the magic occurs: Each reservoir is gated by a special titanium and platinum seal that temporarily melts when an electric current is applied, allowing the drug to seep out. Apparently the reservoirs are large enough to carry a 16-year supply of the hormonal contraceptive levonorgestrel.

If 16 years of continued contraception wasn’t cool enough, the implant can also be activated and deactivated wirelessly. So, the implant would continue to provide birth control — until you press a button on a remote control, in which case it would be turned off, and you could then get pregnant again. Sadly, exact details on how the implant actually works — most notably the wireless connectivity and the magical melting/re-forming seal — are fairly hard to come by. But, considering it’s based on tech that MIT pioneered way back in the late ’90s, and now the involvement of the Gates Foundation, presumably it all works as advertised.

So far, the Microchips implant has been successfully used to dispense drugs to osteoporosis patients. Now, with the Gates Foundation getting involved, the new contraceptive version of the implant is being developed. The current plan is to begin testing in 2015 and have it on the market by 2018. (Remember, the Gates Foundation is all about improving the quality of life for people living in developing countries, and reliable contraception is key to such an endeavor. Last year we wrote a fantastic story about the Foundation funding the creation of an impenetrable graphene condom…)

An older Microchips implant (I think it measures around 5cm on the longest side.)

The obvious advantage of such a drug-dispensing implant is that it removes a large portion of the potential human error. Rather than having to take a pill every day, or visit a doctor for an injection every few months, the implant just sits there, dutifully dispensing drugs for 16 years. If you decide it’s the right time to get pregnant, just push the button. There’s no mention of it on the Microchips website, but presumably a male version could also be developed (though male hormonal contraceptives aren’t quite as developed yet as their female counterparts).

As with any medical implant, my mind readily races towards possible flaws and misuses of the Microchips technology. Obviously the wireless remote control is only useful if it remains in the hands of the woman with the implant. You also can’t rule out the possibility of outside actors remotely hacking the implant to turn it off — so the woman might think she’s protected, but isn’t. The possibilities get even scarier when you consider that these implants might eventually be used for other drugs, too. It was almost three years ago that we first discussed the lethal wireless insulin pump hack.

Imagine a future, where everyone is equipped with a range of drug-dispensing implants that lay dormant until they’re needed. Feeling the onset of ‘flu? Just push a button to dispense some drugs. Got food poisoning? Push the button. Feeling down and need a quick boost of serotonin? Mmm, warm and fuzzy button. Need to kill someone quickly and remotely? Hack one of their drug dispensing implants.

Tagged In

This is a really cool tech, but lets just hope that the wireless is extremely secure, or a long-range hack could result in a lot of unplanned pregnancies!

Dozerman

Honestly, though, who would want to do that?

Joel Detrow

Some men just want to watch the world burn.

aidaeboyster

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antianalfabet

Fuck your Uncle.

karimhasebou

haha. lol nice way to reply to spam

Brian Kram

I Imagine using something like NFC would work fairly well

Sean Lumly

That’s a great idea! If the dispenser was close enough to be affected by an NFC transmitter, this would reduce the likelihood of mischievousness — any attempts to hack the chip would have to be extremely close range.

Maybe we need another near proximity wireless technology with around 30cm (1ft) of range. Something using magnetic fields might work, though error checking would have to be very robust to deal with interference.

Ivor O’Connor

Bet this will be hacked and misused if it ever comes into existence.

The endless possible deadly failures… I wonder if it would survive the TSA screening process. Or an X-Ray. Or all the other stuff. It surely won’t survive deliberate hacking. Maybe it will help get world population under control and back down to about a billion people?

Plyphon

I’m now thinking of a book plot where everyone is given one of these at birth, and the government controls who get to conceive children and when.

Rentier

The government already controls with who you get to conceive children. In my country incest is a crime.

dethkat666

So, you would f#*k your sister if it was legal?

Sineater37

The first thing I thought was someone will hack a garage door opener and mess with these things for sure. In the world we live in today you just can’t safely and reliably deploy such a thing.

BillBasham

Drastically setting aside my libertarian beliefs so I can propose a solution to poverty.

We need a 3 key unlock mechanism on a mandated birth control implant. 1&2 the prospective parents, and the 3rd keyed to a trust fund with adequate funding to raise the child to adulthood…

Dozerman

I… I actually kind of agree with that. Me and the wife are going through the process of adoping, and seeing the way things are here really open your eyes up to all of the terrible situations that people bring children into. I would absolutely be oppen to a regulatory system on childbirthing.

BillBasham

Given some of the vast accumulations of wealth, we really are just one enlightened philanthropist away from a ‘pay to not get pregnant’ scheme. Offer someone $10,000 for every 5 years they manage to not have children and we could solve a lot of problems. This implant system could be a good tool for this sort of scheme.

Dozerman

Well, Bill Gates seems to be on the whole “population control” bandwagon, but he seems to be more concentrated on Africa.

BillBasham

I’m kind of a carrot person and not a stick. Cash is a pretty solid carrot, and condoms and lectures tend to feel like a stick to me…

I won’t argue with anything that works , as long as it is adopted voluntarily.

Dozerman

Carrot? Stick?

Joel Detrow

Imagine a person is like a donkey that you want to lead around. You could hang a carrot in front of them, and they’ll move forward to get at the carrot, or you could beat that ass’s ass with a stick, and it’ll move forward to get away from the stick.

Joel Detrow

No, a stick would be, “we cut your balls/ovaries off after the second kid” or something of that nature.

BillBasham

Nicely explained – very graphic :)

Scott Jackson

How about an IQ test before you can have children? There are way too many dumb people out there that can barely take care of themselves and have no business trying to raise children.

Dozerman

I don’t think so. IQ isn’t necessarily a perfect indicator of a person’s performance as a human being.

MarcB1969

You’re thinking is in line with current Science Czar, John Holdren and Aldous Huxley. Holdren suggested a similar idea in his book, Ecoscience, while Huxley provided guidelines for who was allowed to procreate in Brave New World.

I shared similar sentiments many years ago, but over time realized that nature has it’s own intrinsic genius in sorting these things out. It’s best for Man not to meddle with it. The way to prevent the less fit from procreating is to simply stop subsidizing it.

Tech like this is another sign that humans are rapidly supplanting a previous reliance on religion with an unquestioned faith in science. Thanks, but no thanks.

larry

Women will go for it. I hope it reaches markets in teh U.S.. Sadly, they’ll never put in a permission slip… from say the husband. Women are alway saying; you got me pregnant. What this needs is a male permission slip. Since it takes two to get prego. I say give the man some help here. How about a near field identifier. Want to have sex; honestly honey…. my machine is on (not lying). They could sell tons of these things for guys; to check and see if the girl is protected. All we need… is the govt to install them in every women seeking free birth control at taxpayer expense. Honestly… what would be the rub. The woman pushes the remote control; and the guy gets a message saying it’s on and protecting. Perfect ending for those wishing to use control measures.

Mo Lillaney

It’s a better idea to make this a design patent, and have the chip close to the surface of the skin such that you can ‘inject’ the reservoirs with any kind of drug you’d like…. many drugs won’t last 16 years, but the design concept is more valuable then anything… also if you are burning the gates open to let the medicine out…these aren’t reusable so it would need tweaking to be refillable

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